iPhone Seen Getting 3G Speeds on T-Mobile

T-Mobile has never been one to shy away from expressing interest in Apple’s iPhone – the company is the last major carrier in the U.S. without the device after all. But ultimately, T-Mobile has conceded it’s Apple’s decision whether or not an iPhone capable of running on Magenta’s network would be made.

As it stands, a million plus users have taken to jailbreaking their iPhone in order to use the device on T-Mobile’s network, but because the wireless carrier offers a different network standard (1700/2100MHz), users have been limited to slower EDGE speeds. Not anymore.

According to MacRumors, an internal refarming of spectrum capacity to advance its HSPA+ 84 network has lead to the carrier’s 3G network to move over to the 1900MHz band. In other words, iPhone users on T-Mobile can now access 3G. The catch? It’s very rare at the moment, and may remain that way.

In a post detailed on TmoNews, the wireless carrier seems to be targeting the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, Utah and California right now, with no news on whether the refarming will occur elsewhere. In addition, “not all of the aforementioned areas are seeing this refarmed spectrum, just pockets inside those areas.” TmoNews emphasized how rare this occurrence is, and noted that users shouldn’t get their hopes up about the possibility of seeing 3G on their iPhone.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean T-Mobile will suddenly start offering the iPhone, it’s a interesting development. T-Mobile has always been the cheaper option for consumers, and if its network was moved over to the 1900MHz band, it could potentially make a killing with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S were the company to offer the phones.